


hello

by machibouke



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Libraries, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 10:44:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7505173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/machibouke/pseuds/machibouke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He's looking at you again."</p>
            </blockquote>





	hello

**Author's Note:**

> inspired a little by [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Zg-XjjSkk). there's a bit of swearing because they're teenagers, haha.

 

 

 

_hello, i know you, but you don't know me /_   
_we haven't talked all this time /_   
_i just looked at you hanging out from faraway._

 

“He’s looking at you _again_.”

Nino spares Jun another exasperated glance, flips over the last page in his textbook and waves his hand dismissively. He then very pointedly shows his friend his watch – shoving it right in his face just because he can – and glares outside the window beside them where it’s pouring down rain.

“God help me, Matsumoto. It’s 7:32pm. I have a biochemistry final tomorrow, don’t I? And you have your last math extension exam tomorrow first thing in the morning, if I’m reading your notes right. Whose brilliant idea was it to skip study period today and go and try if we could get into that strip club in Harajuku instead?” Nino laughs in bitter disbelief. “I can’t believe they even let us in.”

“You came in anyway, didn’t you? Pig,” Jun gripes.

“To keep an eye on you of course. Who knows? A yakuza could have picked you up at a place like that,” Nino tells him crossly. “Didn’t you see those guys who kept giving us dirty looks? As in _what the fuck are you rotten kids doing here?_ ”

“Well there was no one around when we were there, so get over it.”

Jun shields his eyes with one hand and jerks his chin back sideways to the reception desk where the twentysomething short, brown-haired man he had pointed out before is still openly staring at them. Not just in their general direction but directly at Nino’s face – and with zero shame. For some reason, it’s not bothering Nino as much as Jun thinks it should. He watches with an agape mouth as his friend continues his tirade.

“…and we’re probably going to get reprimanded tomorrow as well for skipping out. All because you wanted to see a pair of boobs,” Nino finishes in resignation, his hand landing perched under his chin. He nods unthinkingly, still unaware. “At least the boobs were good. Pretty average if you ask me though. No shape at _all--_ ”

Jun suddenly flinches and ducks down, taking Nino down with him. Their faces are inches from the table. He pulls up a book to cover their faces and opens it. “Do librarians have managers or something? You should report that guy. He’s not even looking my way and he’s creeping me the fuck out.”

“Seriously, I think the guy just has social issues. It’s best to ignore people like that, Jun-kun. Can we get back to studying now?”

But Nino gives the reception area one last passing look anyway, ignores a hopeful feeling niggling in his chest and writes him off easily again. “Plus, I really doubt that he’s a librarian. He’s too…simple-looking. I bet he’s just a staffer, part-time. He’s not always here, right? He’s harmless.”

He really should, but he doesn’t mention that this isn’t the first time he’s been looked at so intensely by the worker, but Jun would be better off not knowing those details.

Jun snorts his disagreement at the commentary.

“Sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself more than me. Scared of your newfound stalker?”

Scowling just slightly, Nino reaches over and places a gentle hand on the back of Jun’s neck and, as nicely as he can, shoves his head towards the books they’re taking notes from. “Study! If you get another below-average result in that class, your parents are going to ship you off to this incredibly horrible boarding school in the middle of nowhere where you’ll get bullied and fail your grade and then you’ll fall into this deep, bitter trap where all you’ll do is hate the world for what it did to you and you’ll chase the people who made your life miserable. Then one day you’ll come to forget me.” For good measure, let’s out a dramatic sigh and wipes his cheek free of a non-existent tear. “I don’t think you could cope with all of that. You’re my best friend, Matsumoto Jun. I would seriously and honestly miss you with every ounce of my being.”

His mouth falling open again, Jun just glowers disapprovingly at the unwarranted guilt trip and they start to bicker. The heated conversation, conveyed entirely in angry whispers, goes a little something like this:

“You’re my best friend too, Nino. In other words, I care about you and your welfare and I seriously think that guy is going to tail and murder you when we walk home.”

“And why just me?”

“Because you’re the pretty one. They’re into that.”

“Fuck you. You look just as pretty as me.”

“Are we seriously going to argue about this. There are more important things to talk about. Like you running into foul play tonight.”

“Would you _please_ stop turning my life into some homicidal thriller movie, Jun-kun—”

“Me? Weren’t you the one just lecturing me about boarding school and me being bullied and hating society or something? Jesus. Forget private schools—my parents can’t even afford to buy a new TV. You know that.”

“Fair point. They have to spend all the money tending to your ever-important hair gel needs. I completely forgot.”

With a huff, Jun eventually returns to his studies, shuffling closer with his chair as if that would get the stare of the clerk off their backs. He murmurs something low about maybe sitting at a table on the second level of the library next time they have to cram at the last available minute. Nino just smiles to himself. He then spots the eyes of the man scanning over his face out of the corner of his eye and hastily puts his head down again. He looks unusually young to be working in a library, Nino thinks distractedly while jotting down the title of his last hypothesis. There has to be a reason why he’s the only one who is attracting the attention of the mysterious worker, but Nino is far too swamped with sifting through paragraphs of molecular structures to determine the motive.

Twenty minutes pass by idly. Sixteen minutes into the silence, Jun had renamed the library worker to be Nino’s admirer. It was definitely a one-up from _stalker_ , Nino supposes, trying to remain unfazed. He’s fairly sure it’s beyond the mind of a staff worker in a library to suddenly be romantically interested in a seventeen-year old schoolboy doing cram study in the far corner anyway. Another theory quashed. Nino and Jun will just have to be careful getting home now.

At 8:05, Nino stands and jogs up to the upper level to return a pile of advanced books and materials to the shelves. He can’t seem to remember where most of them go back though and has trouble finding the correct spots. By the time he comes back to the table, the place is a whole lot darker, and he finds a note in place of his friend.

_I forgot I had a tutoring session tonight in Asakasa with Sho-san! See you tomorrow at school, and be careful walking home. Good luck on your exam! Not that you’ll need it, brainchild. Say hello to your admirer for me. ♥_

“By all means, rush off, but have the time to leave a sarcastic ending to your damn note,” Nino mutters. He can do nothing but grumble and wonder how a tutoring session never came up in their previous bouts of conversation. Jun was either being horribly forgetful lately or just really liked his timing. Having being all studied out though, he spends five minutes browsing the fiction section looking for a book to read before bed that night. After a spot of indecision, he picks _Norwegian Wood_ (a favourite of his father’s, he remembers distantly) and heads for the reception table with slight reluctance. If he got stared at with such intensity from five metres away, Nino couldn’t dare imagine what the scrutiny would be like face-to-face.

But the clerk doesn’t even cast him a look and takes Nino’s card when it is proffered. He then takes the book and it disappears behind the counter. Nino sneaks a subtle glance at his nametag. Ohno Satoshi (just in case Jun was right about the bizarre stalker theory. Nino would need a name if that were going to happen. Hypothetically, of course). The man simply opens the book, lazily scans the front page with a little device, types something into the computer, and pushes it back with a clouded expression. He flashes an amicable smile when Nino doesn’t move or take the book. Nino at least hopes it’s amicable. It’s hard not to be weirded out by it after the neverending gaze he received earlier.

After all, it’s not the first time he’s been looked at like this by Ohno-san. Other times when he’d come to the library by himself to squeeze in some last-minute information into his brain about the second world war, Nino had more than once seen the other man prowling the aisles and watching him through the gaps of the shelves. Those times they were at a very close proximity but for some reason they had never spoken.

He had neglected to tell Jun of those incidents. Frantically trying to push Jun’s notion out of his head, Nino takes his leave and tries to shove the book in his bag as he hurriedly walks, but it drops from his sweaty grip and falls open on the floor.

_You’re looking at me again, aren’t you,_ he thinks in dismay. That burn is on his back, the one he’s felt so many times before. It’s no different now. He wishes Jun were here.

Nino bends to retrieve the book, but an uneven gap in the closed pages catches his eye. He opens the book a little to see something wedged between two pages. It’s a battered out-of-date return card from the card catalogue. He gives it one surprised but wary look, half-wanting to just take it out and toss it on the floor, but he plucks it out and smothers a helpless smile at the quick scrawl right at the bottom of all the stamped dates.

_Hello #24985. Ninomiya-kun, right?_

His library card membership number, Nino notes, feeling the temperature of his face rise significantly at the sight of his name written like that. It’s followed by another slightly longer number that has Nino swinging around to share his smile with Ohno Satoshi.

Finally.

 


End file.
